Yankee Doodle

Lyrics and Music: Anonymous [Download the mp3]

Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there we see the men and boys,
As thick as hasty pudding.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

And there we see a swamping gun,
Large as a log of maple,
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father’s cattle.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder;
It makes a noise like father’s gun,
Only a nation louder.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

I went as nigh to one myself
As ’Siah’s underpinning;
And father went as nigh again,
I thought the deuce was in him.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so, I shrinked it off,
And hung by father’s pocket.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

But Captain Davis had a gun,
He kind of clapped his hand on’t,
And struck a crooked stabbing iron
Upon the little end on’t.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

And there I see a pumpkin shell
As big a mother’s basin,
And every time they touched it off,
They scamper’d like the nation.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

I see a little barrel too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked upon it with little clubs,
And called the folks together.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

And there was Captain Washington,
And gentlefolks about him;
They say he’s grown so tarnal proud,
He will not ride without ’em.

Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.